Posted on 12/17/2014 10:39:33 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
The President and Mrs. Obama took to People Magazine to whine about alleged racist slights they’ve received over the years. The President complains that he used to have trouble hailing a cab and was mistaken for a valet. The First Lady whines that at Target someone asked for help getting something off a shelf. The Obama’s apparently believe this constitutes racism, likely of the mythical white privilege variety. In reality none of these events constitute racism, they only constitute common mistakes people make. In the cast of the lady at Target, she made the mistake of asking someone as arrogant as Michelle Obama for help reaching something on a shelf.
Mrs. Obama alleges the Target incident occurred during her 2011 shopping photo op. Her story doesn’t even sound plausible. We’re to believe the Secret Service allowed a random stranger to get close enough to the First Lady to ask her for help reaching for something on a shelf. We’re further to believe that no one else at the store was interested in the hoard of press Secret Service agents surrounding a woman who looked exactly like the First Lady. Press reports from the Target excursion indicated that Mrs. Obama had a great time shopping, none of them mention a racist woman who dared ask for help. Let’s say the incident did happen though, why would anyone presume racism played a role? People ask strangers for help all the time, I’ve been asked to help get things off of shelves at the grocery store on any number of occasions. Rather than behave in a Christ-like manner and joyfully help someone, Mrs. Obama assumes racism with the attitude of Marie Antoinette. You can almost hear her say “don’t you know who I am” while refusing to help someone out.
The incidents the President alleges are racist sound more plausible, though one wonders why anyone would read racism into them. He alleges that while living in Chicago he had trouble hailing a taxi. Around 60% of taxi drivers in Chicago are foreign born, with large numbers from Pakistan and South Asia. They enter their jobs without an intimate knowledge of American racial issues. Yet they won’t stop to pick up a black man. Why might that be? Walter Williams opines it might be because black people want to be driven to dangerous neighborhoods or may fear being the victim of robbery. When taxi drivers believe a black man might rob them it isn’t because of some inbred form of white privilege, these people are largely foreign born or black. They don’t pick up black people because they have experienced being robbed or taken to dangerous neighborhoods. If you are a cab driver, the last place you want to be taken is a dangerous neighborhood. Not only do you risk being robbed but you’re unlikely to find another customer who will return you to more lucrative destinations such as the airport or downtown. It isn’t racism, it’s experience.
The President complains that he has been mistaken for a valet and a waiter. In Chicago many of the valets are black men dressed nicely in tuxedos or suits. Likewise at nice hotels and restaurants a lot of waiters are black, again wearing tuxedos. The only reason why Obama is being mistaken is because he looks like the valet who parked the car or the waiter who took away a salad plate. Are people not allowed to notice the valet or waiter or mistake that person for Barack Obama circa 2000? The assumption isn’t that all black men look like valets but when a black man wearing a tux is standing at the valet parking stand and the valet who parked your car looks the same it’s safe to assume he’s the valet. If Obama was mistaken as a valet, all he had to do is say that he isn’t the valet and move on with life. Instead, he holds a grudge as though some terribly racist event has taken place. In reality, he looked like the valet or the waiter. Had the valet or waiter been white or a woman then people might mistake others for being the valet or waiter.
The Obama’s are complaining about absolutely nothing. People make mistakes, they assume someone is the valet when he’s really a guess. It’s not the result of racism, it’s at worst the result of not paying attention. I’ve been mistaken for other people before, it’s not a big deal. All you have to do is correct the person making the mistake, they’re usually embarassed to have made it. If the worst example of “racism” Obama can come up with is this, it suggests to me that we don’t have a racism problem in America. The biggest mistake anyone can make though is asking Michelle Obama to help them with anything. Apparently the Queen isn’t to be asked to do anything and if she is she’ll cry racism. There’s a little bit of arrogance behind Mrs. Obama’s complaints, as though she’s to good or important to help a lady get something off a shelf. For Christians such a position must be opposed. Jesus Christ came to Earth as a servant. If he isn’t to good to help someone get something off a shelf, neither is Michelle Obama.
That's priceless.
Other than staff I bet she’s the only one there ....
They go through life wearing race colored glasses
70's
I drove that cab....for a week....in 1972...
In the future, when I think about blacks and cabs, I’ll remember your post. Thanks for the clear, non-PC explanation.
NO, I think they assumed Target has greeters like WalMart, so between my gray hair and the fact that I was seated on a mobility scooter, she probably thought I was supplementing my Social Security.
Ageism, definitely.
That’s why I’d have liked to have seen it. To see what sort of “fashion statement” she was making that day. Many of her get-ups aren’t fit to wear to a dog fight.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Yeah, I somewhat remember that.
And yet someone snuck past all that to ask her help to get something off a shelf...?
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